Mapping the progress of Uniswap Foundation grants year to date.

At the Uniswap Foundation, our goal is to establish the Uniswap Protocol as the home for all tokenized markets. To do this, we are accelerating the development of the DeFi ecosystem through grants: fostering deep and sustained engagements with developers, researchers, and governance stakeholders.

Earlier this year, we reoriented our grants strategy to center large-scale and long-term initiatives, focusing on grants exceeding $250,000. This new approach was designed to extend our impact and catalyze network growth. And, as we enter the second half of the year, we’re excited to share progress on our funding key performance indicators (KPIs). Our 2024 funding model is contributing to broadening the influence and accessibility of the Uniswap protocol, driving new technical implementations, growing the developer ecosystem, and advancing governance, security, and protocol innovation.  Here’s a look at our progress year-to-date, vertical by vertical.

Research

• Core KPI: Lead technological advances in AMMs.

• Progress: Within the Research category, we’ve strategically allocated $2,092,000 in funding across four key projects.

• Impact: Enabled comprehensive DeFi research, shaping the future of AMMs.

Developers

• Core KPI: Build a robust developer ecosystem for the Uniswap Protocol.

• Progress: Building and retaining a self-sustaining community of developers for the Uniswap Protocol requires education, tooling, and incentives. In 2024, we’ve committed $868,000 across developer programs and events to facilitate this.

• Impact: Strengthened the developer base, ensuring community contributions and innovations on v4.

Governance

• Core KPI: Build and implement a resilient governance model for the Uniswap Protocol

• Progress: We've allocated $995,000 to strengthen the Uniswap Protocol's governance by fostering delegate collaboration. This funding has supported events and workshops that enhance delegate interaction, participation, and governance functionalities.

• Impact: Improved governance structures and enhanced delegate activity, creating a more collaborative ecosystem.

Security

• Core KPI: Uphold the Uniswap Protocol's reputation for reliability & security.

• Progress: We’ve committed $2,742,195 for comprehensive audits for Uniswap v4, and Uniswap’s Governance Smart Contracts.

• Impact: Ensured the security and reliability of Uniswap, reinforcing trust within the community.

Protocol + Innovation

• Core KPI: Implement a sustainable protocol model that reinforces growth.

• Progress: We understand the complexities involved in funding protocol innovation, and improving the user experience on Uniswap.  To this end, we’ve allocated a total of $1,579,000 to these efforts.

• Impact: Catalyzed protocol enhancements that align with market needs and user expectations.

Looking Ahead

The strides we've made so far in 2024 across all verticals get us closer to building a robust, diverse, and values-aligned ecosystem. In Research, we've grown and mobilized our network of DeFi researchers. Our Developer ecosystem has expanded through active hackathon participation and new developments. Governance has seen more delegate involvement and process improvements. Security remains robust with audits funded and a major bug bounty initiative underway. Under Protocol + Innovation, we've initiated a Grants Program and funded a new liquidity interface to enhance user experience.

As we grow and support a community that builds, innovates, and maintains the Uniswap Protocol, expect more innovative governance enhancement programs, developer hackathons, research implementations, and other exciting initiatives in the remainder of 2024.